As cold as ice
by destiny's charm
Summary: After all they've been through, they should have been happy. They deserved to be happy, but sadly life doesn't always work that way.
1. Chapter 1

**Cold as ice**

Growing up in a deserted wasteland sure had it's perks and so her early days were spend joyfully unaware of all the horrors in the world. But as all things in life, that didn't last and her eyes were forcefully opened to bestow what had happened in the last hundred years or so.

The war touched her, her family and her heart. Never would her life be the same again.

Determination was perhaps one of her most important treats. She was determined to be the mother Sokka had lost, she was determined to go and safe the world on a whim, tagging along with an airhead avatar and her obnoxious brother, but most importantly, she was determined to be happy.

And that's where she failed.

Because even though they've saved the world from destruction, that didn't solve all their problems. No, it was nearly the beginning. Suddenly, she was forced to grow up. Sure, she had been acting as the mother of their merry band of misfits all through their rebellion against the fire nation, but deep down she was still Katara.

A confused 15 year old who dearly needed her mother.

Kissing Aang was one of the biggest mistakes she'd ever made. Losing sight of her friends was another.

But her biggest mistake was her most recent one.

She accepted his proposal and set her destiny in stone. Slowly, ever so slowly, her heart turned to ice. She had never loved him, not the way he deserved to be loved. Yet he so dearly loved her and it would have broken her heart to refuse him what he so desired. Who was she to say no to him?

After all, who had suffered more because of this war than Aang?

Night after night, she told herself that it was the only thing she could have done, night after night, she convinced herself that the world needed her sacrifice. Night after night, she tried to convince herself that she loved him, too bad her heart didn't fall for that trick.

So instead of celebrating with her friends and partying the night away, Katara spends her last unmarried day alone, surrounded by the element that now controlled her heart.

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He first noticed it one year after their wedding. She would wake him like she always did, with a smile and a kiss, but she would never look at him while she gave him both.

Deep down, he knew that something was wrong, horribly wrong, but due to his carefree nature, he just continued on as normal. In his mind, acknowledging the problem meant that it was really there, and the young avatar didn't feel like dealing with any more of those. So he just waved it off.

But it kept nagging in the back of his mind, until he realised what was perhaps the most hurtful thing that had ever happened to him.

Their whole life was a lie. They said the compulsory "I love you's" everyday without truly meaning it. He did mean his, with whole his heart, but she didn't. She never had. They only had sex when he insisted on it, she never was the one to take the first step.

But the worst part was the smile she gave him every morning, because he knew that in her mind, it wasn't him she was smiling at.

She had never been his, and he had been a fool to believe otherwise.

In that one night, his heart turned as cold as ice

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_a/n; wow, it's been a while since I've written anything other than a scientific report. I'm not quite sure why I've started again, since I'm really busy around this time a year, but I just woke up with this story stuck in my head one day and I had to write it down. Though writing it down took more time than I originally imagined so I'm sorry to say that what I've written today isn't exactly the same as the story I woke up to. At best, it's a sorry replacement, but I hope it's still enjoyable._

_~~destiny's child~~_


	2. Chapter 2

"In a few months, I'll be as big as Sokka should be, with the amount of food he eats".

Katara had to blink several times before she understood the cryptic message her sister in law had just given her. How could she have missed it? Suki had been eating more than Appa after a long flight, she had even fought Sokka for food once. If that hadn't been a dead give away…

Of course Katara pretended to be happy for them, because deep down, she was happy. For them that is. But the fact that her brother was having his first child, with someone he dearly loved a lot, stung Katara as she placed her hand on her still childless womb. The only child she would ever have was Aang, her husband…

She was supposed to be a mother, should have been a mother, but fate could be such a cruel thing.

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"I think it's better if you move to another bedroom"

The had been married for four years now. Four long years had she been devoid of love, four long years had she feared the next day. Four long years she had been pretending that she loved him the way he loved her, but it was obvious she didn't.

You can't really fake love, no matter how hard you tried.

Even he had noticed it. Perhaps it had been that time when she had smiled at him when he woke up, her mind still foggy, her thoughts not with him. Perhaps he had noticed that they were missing something essential in their marriage, something she would never give him. Or perhaps he had simply gotten tired of him, the same way she had gotten tired of him.

Speculate as she might, she would never know unless she asked him, but her pride wouldn't allow it.

And hence Katara spent her first night alone, for the first time in four years, crying herself to sleep. What had her life, once so promising become? She would end up as a bitter old childless woman, who died the way she lived.

Alone, and cold, like the ice that bore her.

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"I'm getting married" His deep amber eyes bored into her icy blue ones, looking for a reaction, but they found none.

How could they? She was dead inside, cold inside. She simply couldn't take anymore. The only man she had ever loved was getting married, to another women, and it was all her fault. If she hadn't married Aang, if she hadn't been so afraid of hurting his emotions, she would have been the one having a baby in a few months. She would have been the one ruling the fire nation side by side with the very man who saved her life. She would have been the happy one.

She should have been the one, but fate simply didn't work that way.

She barely heard him call call her name, she didn't feel his hands trying to get a hold of her. All she felt was the cold, artic cold, that took control over her body. The feeling was overwhelming, it was almost as she was drowning and freezing at the same couldn't think anymore, her emotions were overwhelming her senses. She simply couldn't take it anymore.

Home, she was going home.

No one needed her. No one loved her. Not Zuko, not Aang, not Suki nor Sokka. They wouldn't even miss her, she was sure of it. The world would be just fine without should be just fine without her.

She didn't feel the sand between her toes as she walked over the beach, she didn't feel the soft wind graze her hair. She barely felt the water before it consumed her. All she could think of was home.

Home, she was going home…

Later, the fishermen would say that they saw the ocean freeze when her body hit its surface.


	3. Chapter 3

Water filled her nose and longs and soon she felt dizzy in her head. The very reason why she had thrown herself into the reason was slowly disappearing from her mind as her muscles started screaming for oxygen. A luxury her mind wouldn't allow them. In one last major effort, she froze the water around her, imprisoning herself in a small ice room filled with water.

Home was where the heart is, and she finally was home.

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"Aang, we've got to find her. I don't know what has gotten into her, but I just know that's something wrong…"

Of course Zuko was worried. One of his best friends had just dashed off after hearing he would be getting married. The moment she heard, it was as if a button was pressed in her mind and her body and attitude turned as cold as the element she could command. Her eyes turned an icy blue, and she had ignored him, dashing off to Agni knows where.

"Guys…I can't feel her."

Of course Zuko had followed her at first, but it was as if something greater than himself was carrying Katara, and soon he lost her out of his sight. But fate must have been feeling nice today, because he stumbled into Toph and Aang five minutes after he had lost Katara.

Two pairs of eyes sent a deadly look toward Toph, which lost the effect they were supposed to have seeing as the young girl couldn't see them anyway.

"Geez guys don't fret. It's Sugar queen we're talking about, for all we know she's taking a swim."

Though the two males of the group didn't say so, that was the very thing they were afraid of. Katara hadn't been herself lately and they simply didn't know what was going on in her head.

"I sewear, t'was the strangest thing I've seen, and Mo has seen a lot, believe me. The ocean froze, I sewear, if you dun believe me, have a look for yourself ung ones"

A little while ahead of them, three fishermen were surrounded by a small crowd.

"If this is one of your drunken stories, tell them somewhere else. Some people actually have to work to earn their food, you know"

And as soon as it appeared, the small crowd dispatched, leaving the three fishermen standing in the middle of the road, looking quite befuddled.

"Excuse me, but we happened to overhear your conversation, and could you be so kind to point us the place where you saw the ocean freeze?"

The ocean freezing over could only mean one thing, Katara had to be near. If those men had seen anything, anything that could help them, it was worth the time.

"Ya dun believe me either, do you lat?Let little ol'Mo show you the miracle presented to him by Agni."

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And there is was, in the middle of the ocean, one of the very images of her homeland. An iceberg almost the size of the one Aang resided in for little over hundred years.

"Bend it to the shore"

Every part of Zuko was screaming at him to do something, to melt the damn thing that held Katara prisoner, but his mind knew that he couldn't do anything until it reached the shore.

Aang however, wasn't moving.

"What do you think you're doing? We have to get her out of there and you're the only one who can bring her to us. GET YOUR BUT MOVING"

But all Aang did was look at him, with this sad sad look that sent shivers down his back.

"I don't think she wants to be saved…"

"Like hell we're going to leave her in that thi/"

Their argument was briefly disturbed when they noticed that Toph was actually walking into the ocean. Even though she wouldn't be able to melt the iceberg like Zuko, or bent it to the shore like Aang, or even find and reach it like the both of them, the least she could do was to be near Katara, because she knew exactly how she felt.

She had felt the same way when Aang got married and the only thing that had kept her from throwing herself from a mountain was the fact that Katara was just as unhappy as she was. They were in this together.

She felt the water around her move, and warm strong hands pulled her back onto the shore. At first, she didn't have a clue to who it was that pulled her back, since she couldn't see in the water, but to her surprise it was Zuko who had come to get her.

"Why aren't you there with her Sparky?"

"Aang is finally bending her to the shore…there's nothing I can do till she's here. We might end up losing her, but that doesn't mean that we should also lose you…"

Toph shook her head. She could feel his heartbeat thrumming really fast. He was scared as well, they all were. Even Aang's footsteps didn't feel nearly as light as they used to.

They couldn't lose her; each and any of them needed her, why couldn't she see that?

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Time seemed to pass so fast when Katara's frozen prison reached the beach. In seconds they were up on their feet, doing anything they could to safe their friend/lover/sister. But time was running out and they all knew it.

On multiple occasions, Toph almost got hit by some derailed fire flares produced by either Aang or Zuko. But instead of yelling at them and kicking their butts, she just ducked. She could always kick their butts after they'd freed Katara.

"I got her, I got her"

"Get her out; I don't think she's breathing"

Things were a blur for Toph. Everything was going so fast and they all were shouting so it was impossible to decide who had said what.

"I can still feel her heartbeat"

Faint as it was, it gave the three of them hope that they hadn't been too late.

In their frenzy to get Katara back onto the shore, they hadn't noticed Mo approaching them, that is, until he decided to speak up.

"Mo's a fishermen, I'm used to people stayin'out in the good ol'sea for a tad too long. Give me some space, will ya?"

Time seemed to stop as they all watched (or felt) Mo pump the water out of Katara. Huge amounts of the liquid stained the warm sand. And suddenly Toph felt a jolt on each side of her. Something had happened, that much she knew.

Katara was awake


End file.
